Web Hosting Options and Servers

Managed Hosting vs. Self Managed Hosting

• Managed Hosting - regardless of the type of server or software that you are using, the web hosting company is available to assist you with more of a hands on relationship. The Engineers and Technicians at ABI Web Hosting are accessible by phone and email during regular business hours to provide requested upgrades or account revisions, answer web hosting related questions, and add new services.

• Self-Managed Web Hosting - you are provided a Plesk Control Panel and within it all of the tools needed to manage your website yourself. Limited phone support is available, usually the first 7 days during the set-up process, and then only email support from the web hosting company. Your hosting fees are less than with Managed Hosting. Self-Managed Web Hosting plans often include a pre-set package or "pay as you go" service plan for live telephone customer support. Self Managed Web Hosting is usually used by experienced web developers who do not require the assistance of the web hosting technical support staff.

Shared Servers - Dedicated Servers - Virtual Private Servers

• Shared Server - the average server can hold up to 250 websites that operate with low volumes of traffic. For instance, a doctor's office website would have a very minimal amount of visitors compared to an e-commerce website that also advertises on national TV. Being on a Shared Server offers a great savings since you are literally sharing the cost of operating the server with a lot of other low traffic websites. The Shared Server hosting plans offered by ABI Hosting are part of our Managed Hosting division.

• Dedicated Server - this is a server that is used solely by one website. Web hosting companies provide dedicated servers for websites that do a very large amount of traffic. In many cases, the really big e-commerce stores will have numerous dedicated servers located in different data centers around the U.S. to accommodate the enormous demand of traffic. These servers are linked together to provide redundancy (mirrored sites) and to allow for a smoother, more efficient operation. The Dedicated Servers offered by ABI Hosting are available either with our Managed Hosting division or via our VPS Self Managed division.

• Virtual Private Server (also known as VPS) - this one of the relatively new web hosting options available. A VPS offers the savings of a shared server (versus a dedicated server) but provides more security and stricter use of the server's resources.
  
  For instance, let's say there is a three lane highway and in each lane is a car. Each car represents a website. They are all driving side by side. Now imagine that the car in the right lane gets a huge influx of visitors all at once because they had a big advertisement in the Sunday newspaper.
  
  This website now needs two lanes to meet the demand of the visitors. This demand requires a larger use of the server's resources and forces the other two cars into one lane, which slows them down dramatically. Now imagine a cement barrier between each of the lanes.
  
  This is what a VPS provides!
  
  It prevents "encroachment" by other websites. It also allows the website programmer complete control of the server's resources allocated to that specific lane.

  So the user gets the benefits that they would have from a dedicated server and the savings they would have from a shared server albeit at a lower level of capacity than that of a true Dedicated Server.
  

For instance, a small family oriented website that feature pictures and current activities or events of different family members can be on a Shared Server along with 200 other small websites.

On the flip side, a store that has thousands of products for sale would most likely be on a dedicated server since it would be using a considerably higher amount of server memory and resources.

If you already know which one of these web hosting options is right for you, then you're ready to stat building your first web site.

If you're still not sure which of these web hosting options is best for what you want to do, then give us a call and we'll help guide you through the process! Please click here to contact us about your web hosting options!